Written by: Super Mastodon (@SuperMastodon)
The New Japan Cup 2020 is now in the history books as well as this year’s traditional Dominion event. Needless to say, this has been one of the more polarizing times of the New Japan community with many of its members split on the recent happenings and results which we will all get into as we progress into this article. So without further ado, let’s just get straight into the action and share my review of the Finals and Dominion this week.
New Japan Cup Finals (Date: July 11, 2020)
Match #1 – GBH def. Tsuji & Uemura
Match Time: 9:15
This was a pretty basic tag opener featuring the veteran duo of GBH against the young lion pairing of Yota Tsuji and Yuya Uemura. Only Makabe out of these four was able to advance the first round in this year’s tournament. Not much to say really, a standard tag-team bout for the trainees to gain more experience against former champions. Makabe got the win with a German Suplex.
Match #2 – TenKoji def. Goto & Kidd
Match Time: 9:57
Again, a very basic tag-team match. Gabriel Kidd who’s an LA Dojo trainee tags with Hirooki Goto, Katsuyori Shibata’s former tag-team partner so there’s some connection there. I really like Kidd’s offense and he’s had quite a few years of experience behind him in the UK indies, it shows with his smooth moveset especially his dropkick. Other than that obviously their team loss to the record IWGP Tag-Team Champion holders who both showed some solid performances in the tournament as well. Kojima wins with the strong arm lariat.
Match #3 – Master Wato def. DOUKI
Match Time: 7:46
The long awaited debut match of Master Wato! (Okay maybe not really long awaited.) But anyway, as we know weeks of vignettes led us to this, Hirai Kawato back in a New Japan ring since his excursion in CMLL with a grand master martial artist gimmick who took a dive on a tank filled with blue paint it seems like. He was attacked by DOUKI in his comeback segment so the match was set for Dominion. Now I’ll give him this, as goofy as he looks right now, Master Wato is still excellent in the ring as evident from his time as a young lion and I’ve seen a few of his work in CMLL, specifically the match against Dulce Gardenia which was good, probably the only highlight of his excursion as well as winning the CMLL World Lightweight Championship which apparently he’s still the reigning champion of? Goes to show how little the company cares about their belts I guess. Back to the match, Wato was solid as I’ve mentioned, can be a bit nervous on some spots but overall him and DOUKI had a decent match for something that is in the undercard. Wato’s moveset is good and his finisher in particular is a variation of the Spiral Tap by AJ Styles which he managed to finished DOUKI. So to those who thought New Japan was swerving us that he’ll have a different gimmick afterwards, guess that ain’t true and they’re going all in on this new persona for him. After the match, Yoshinobu Kanemaru another Suzuki-Gun member attacked him as his next feud, this time a much more experienced wrestler. But Wato has some back up this time with former IWGP Champion Hiroyoshi Tenzan, seemingly being his mentor for now. Which I find odd how a a supposed “master” is going to be “mentored” by someone else but I digress.
Match #4 – Yujiro & Ishimori def. SANADA & BUSHI
Match Time: 9:20
A match playing off of the LIJ vs. Bullet Club dynamic, a hint of what’s to come moments later. As for this match, once again another average tag-team bout consisting of past participants of the tournament, SANADA was the one who went the furthest among this field but the one who shined the most (pun intended) in this match was “The Tokyo Pimp” Yujiro Takahashi of all people! Yes, with the shortage of gaijin talents, Yujiro is receiving a midcard push in 2020. Crazy times we live in. He’s the only heavyweight representative of Bullet Club left so they’re building him up a little bit here and got the pin for his team a Pimp Juice to BUSHI. This wouldn’t be the last time we’ll see all men for tonight.
Match #5 – Taichi, ZSJ, Desperado, & Kanemaru def. Tanahashi, Ibushi, Nagata, & Taguchi
Match Time: 12:43
Basically a preview match for tomorrow’s IWGP Tag-Team Championships defense of the Golden Aces (Tana & Ibushi) against Suzuki-Gun challengers, The Dangerous Tekkers (Taichi & ZSJ.) It was your typical multi men tag of faces and heels, mainly highlighting for the match tomorrow but also Desperado getting a good amount of time in the match and he was the one who scored the victory for his team by pinning Taguchi after the Pinche Loco.
Match #6 – Naito, Shingo, & Hiromu def. Ishii, Yano, & SHO
Match Time: 15:00
The semi main event we got another multi men tag this time its LIJ vs. CHAOS. Oddly enough the World Champion Naito looks the out of place guy here, obviously Hiromu had fantastic showings against Ishii and Yano in the NJ Cup for two completely different reasons and we also get a final preview between Shingo and SHO before their match the next night for The Dragon’s NEVER Openweight Championship. Out of the entire undercard, its safe to say this one was the best in terms of quality but again, nothing really noteworthy. Shingo and SHO trading strikes and all that, hyping us all up for their eventual bout. Other than that, Naito gets the pinfall over Yano. He’ll be back at ringside to see who his next challenger is going to be.
Match #7 – EVIL def. Kazuchika Okada (New Japan Cup Finals)
Match Time: 31:50
Okay time for the only relevant match of the card (with all due respect to Master Wato’s debut.) It’s the New Japan Cup Finals between former 2x winner Kazuchika Okada against EVIL who is a first time finalist. Before we get into the match, let’s take a look back at both men’s journeys into getting to where they at. Okada defeated his former manager Gedo in the first round, got the win over the legend Yuji Nagata, a decisive victory on Taiji Ishimori, and a big time victory over the reigning Jr. Heavyweight Champion in Hiromu. Okada had quite the mixed bag of matches in terms of quality, it’s evident that the no-crowd atmosphere doesn’t suit his style of long drawn out matches, at least for me. Still though he is the defending winner this year and would be huge to get a back-to-back. He has finished all of his opponents thus far with his submission maneuver; the Cobra Clutch and is yet to use the Rainmaker in its true form. As for EVIL he primarily cheated his way through the tournament, channeling his darker side even further and living up to his name. In the first round he won over another legend in Satoshi Kojima, got past multi-time tournament winner Hirooki Goto in the second, then completely squashing an injured YOSHI-HASHI, and winning over his long time tag-team partner and LIJ stablemate SANADA to reach the finals.
As for the match itself, well it was a dull affair. I’m sorry but in comparison to the last three New Japan Cup Finals, this one was the worst. It’s a shame because these two can go, I thought their previous bouts in the G1 Climax and IWGP Title match were solid, not like all-time greats but still good nonetheless. But this time, I don’t know what happened but they just lost chemistry altogether. The lack of atmosphere didn’t help, I’m happy crowds are back but they are refrained from their full reaction potential such as cheering or booing, they’re stuck to clapping as instructed due to the obvious health concerns. Still, they could’ve easily worked their way out of that but no. Okada’s Cobra Clutch by the way looks weak as hell, or at least doesn’t convey to me that it’s a convincing submission hold. He should contact Sgt. Slaughter and take notes on how to apply it in such a way where it looks devastating, his execution of it makes it look like a terrible hold. There just wasn’t enough heat for this match and as if things couldn’t get any worse, we got interferences from Gedo and Yujiro, foreshadowing on what’s about to happen in the end. EVIL got the win after going for some more below the belt shots then hitting his signature maneuver for the win. Easily the worse NJ Cup Finals match in a long time, Shibata vs. Fale was infinitely better. What a shame.
You all know what happened after the match by now. Naito comes out, congratulates his friend who becomes his next challenger for both the IWGP Heavyweight and Intercontinental Championships and as he invited him for the traditional LIJ fist bump, EVIL transformed it into a “Too Sweet” symbol and then proceeds to attack Naito and officially joins the Bullet Club. Any other time, probably this would’ve looked like a big deal to me, because as an invested LIJ fan who is a huge fan of Naito and his journey, to see EVIL his first stablemate and supposedly most loyal pareja be the one to betray him first, it should’ve tingled emotions out of me, but I just ended up laughing how poorly booked this was. The match against Okada didn’t help as to how underwhelming it was and COVID didn’t help BC’s situation because all of their good members are out of the country due to travel restrictions and what is left for them were basically scraps. You’re meaning to tell me a stable with Gedo, Jado, Yujiro, and Ishimori is supposed to be taken seriously? Add in EVIL who’s aesthetics to begin with is far from intimidating and more borderline weird? Yeah it’s not for me man. I’ll save more of my rant for later but yeah, this wasn’t a good segment at all. The rest of LIJ make their way in the ring to rescue their leader but BC members stormed off with their newly recruited guy. Lame.
